Category: coral

Scientists astonished to find 600-mile long reef under the muddy water in a site already marked for oil exploration

Scientists were ‘flabbergasted’ to discover the Amazon reef as coral usually thrives in clear, sunlit tropical waters.

A huge 3,600 sq mile (9,300 sq km) coral reef system has been found below the muddy waters off the mouth of the river Amazon, astonishing scientists, governments and oil companies who have started to explore on top of it.

The existence of the 600-mile long reef, which ranges from about 30-120m deep and stretches from French Guiana to Brazil’s Maranhão state, was not suspected because many of the world’s great rivers produce major gaps in reef systems where no corals grow.

In addition, there was little previous evidence because corals mostly thrive in clear, sunlit, salt water, and the equatorial waters near the mouth of the Amazon are some of the muddiest in the world, with vast quantities of sediment washed thousands of miles down the river and swept hundreds of miles out to sea.

But the reef appears to be thriving below the freshwater “plume”, or outflow, of the Amazon. Compared to many other reefs, the scientists say in a paper in Science Advances on Friday, it is is relatively “impoverished”. Nevertheless, they found over 60 species of sponges, 73 species of fish, spiny lobsters, stars and much other reef life.

They try and say the “science is settle”. It never is. Corals adapt. Otherwise they wouldn’t have survived.

Researchers have shown for the first time that some corals surviving bleaching events can acquire and host new types of algae from their environment, which may make the coral more heat-tolerant and enhance their recovery.

The research, published in The ISME Journal, was led by Southern Cross University postgraduate student Ms Nadine Boulotte and included scientists from SCU’s Marine Ecology Research Centre, the University of Melbourne, the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and the University of Hawai’i.

“This new study will cause a paradigm shift in our understanding of corals that build reefs,” Ms Boulotte said.

“Most corals were previously believed to only acquire microalgae in their juvenile stage, and to house the same algae types for their lifetime.

“Our study shows for the first time that some adult corals can be promiscuous, and swap their algal partners later in life.

“This algae partner-swapping could help corals to better adapt to climate change and survive bleaching events if they can acquire more heat-tolerant microalgae.”

Reading this article on coral reefs makes me wonder if “climate reporters” have a brain in their head.But then I realized you don’t get to keep those jobs unless you vomit up the propaganda.

First it starts in on the doom and gloom stuff about coral bleaching, global warming and El Nino.

As ocean warming continues to trigger widespread destruction of coral reefs, a decade-long study of remote islands in the Central Pacific suggests these biodiversity hot spots may nonetheless be able to thrive.

With many parts of the globe in the grip of a coral reef bleaching event — fueled in part by El Niño-driven ocean warming — scientists and marine conservation advocates have feared many reefs could suffer irreparable damage and fade from existence in coming decades.

Then they get to the good stuff.

The results show that coral reefs surrounding remote islands were dramatically healthier than those in populated areas that were subject to a variety of human impacts.

“There are still coral reefs on this planet that are incredibly healthy and probably look the way they did 1,000 years ago,” said Jennifer Smith, lead author of the study and a professor at Scripps’s Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation.

Teeming with sharks, manta rays, jellyfish and sea turtles, these remote locations contrasted starkly with the heavily populated areas, which were encircled by coral reefs covered in murky seaweed and lacking much of the colorful algae that helps to cement a reef.

Duh!!!!!

It isn’t “global warming” damaging reefs. It is humans and their pollution and rich assholes boats scraping over the reefs!

But as each concern is more thoroughly investigated, scientists are finding nature better equipped to cope than they had imagined.

The latest research, published in Nature: Climate Change today, blows away the theory that reefs were doomed due to rising ocean acidification caused by the higher take-up of carbon dioxide in the seas.

Researchers have found a common coralline algae that grows at the leading edge of coral reefs is not nearly as susceptible to changing ph levels as coral because it contains high levels of dolomite.

In fact, the dolomite-laden algae has a rate of dissolution six to 10 times lower than coral’s.

The good news is that dolomite-rich coralline algae is common in shallow coral reefs across the world.

“Our research suggests it is likely they will continue to provide protection for coral reef frameworks as carbon dioxide rises,” the paper says.”